Chocolate Mint Chill

Apart from the joy of having someone else prepare food or drinks for me, a nice aspect of the whole experience is the extra touch of presentation plates and glasses receive at restaurants and behind the bar. That drizzle of dressing around the edges of a salad plate or chocolaty swirls on a dessert plate makes it much more appealing and fun. Pile on the fruit, sugar cane, and even funky plastic monkeys dangling from the side of a cocktail glass. Tiny paper umbrellas? Yep, I can’t help but like them.

Even though we don’t usually “fuss” as much when making things at home, these little touches are easy enough to do and can add a little sparkle to an otherwise regular day if you’re on your own—or when you have a few friends over. In this easy-to-make cocktail, a swirl of chocolate sauce in the glass not only lends that extra touch you might see if ordered out and about, but it adds an extra sip of sweet. Be sure to get a very thick chocolate sauce for swirling inside of your martini glass. Mixologist Kathy Casey, who contributed this recipe to Drinks magazine, likes to put the sauce into a squirt bottle and refrigerate it to make swirling easier.

The classic combination of chocolate and mint makes for a tasty, decadent after-dinner drink. Plus, if you’re like me and have been “helping out the cause” by dutifully snacking on minty chocolate cookies the girls have been selling lately, that has served to prime your palate for this grown-up fusion of the flavors. Cheers!
 

Chocolate Mint Chill

Makes 1 cocktail

1 1/2 oz. Three Olives Chocolate Vodka
1 oz. Baileys Irish Cream Mint Liqueur
Thick dark chocolate sauce

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Measure in the vodka and liqueur. Cap and shake cocktail vigorously. Swirl chocolate sauce inside a large martini glass. Strain drink into prepared glass and serve immediately.
 

Mary Subialka is the editor of Real Food and Drinks magazines, covering the flavorful world of food, wine, and spirits. She rarely meets a chicken she doesn’t like, and hopes that her son, who used to eat beets and Indian food as a preschooler, will one day again think of real food as more than something you need to eat before dessert and be inspired by his younger brother, who is now into trying new foods.